Has anyone tried using aquacoat under a water-based stain?

I'm stripping my LP jr again, and as I really like the colour of the water-based stain I've been using I'd like to use it again, but have had lots of issues with timbermate as a grain fill.

To get around it I had been doing the tru oil slurry method, which works but takes forever. I'm happy to do it again, but if there's a quicker to get the guitar flat way I won't say no

Any other grain/pore fill suggestions welcome